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Video games a hit with Oregon inmates

SALEM, Ore. (AP)  Kodi Dodgin used to be one of the Oregon prison system's most prolific troublemakers. Now he's only causing problems in space.

Prison records show seven incidents in which Dodgin was sent to disciplinary segregation. But now, Dodgin says, he's been free of trouble for almost two years, thanks in part to the video games he gets to play at the Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla, where the 23-year-old is serving nine years for assault, attempted escape and other crimes.

Dodgin said nothing takes his mind off prison like the intergalactic war game Star Ally.

"You get all these weapons and you've got to beat the four boss men," Dodgin said. "You kill your enemies. They let off these bubbles sometimes. You collect their bubbles, and you get all these weapons."

The $35 video game consoles, pre-loaded with 50 games, are being offered as an incentive for good behavior. Prisoners earn the right to buy one after 18 months of good behavior.

"It's a hot item," said Randy Geer, administrator of the Department of Corrections' non-cash incentives program. "Inmates want one, and it appears to be motivating them."

Not long ago, prisoners stayed out of trouble to get time off their sentences. But Measure 11's mandatory sentences for violent crimes ended that incentive for 40% of the state's inmates.

In 2003, state prisons started offering $300 flat-screen televisions that could be bolted to bunks and hooked up to cable. In 2004 and 2005, 2,398 inmates with at least six months of clean discipline bought the 7-inch LCD sets.

As a result, the once-frequent brawls in recreation rooms over where to sit and what to watch rarely happen these days, officers and prisoners say.

"There's no more butting heads because the day room is full," Dodgin said. "People are just escaping to their cells to go watch what they want on their own TV's."

Geer said he isn't aware of another state that offers video games to its prisoners. But he's been working for three years to expand the list of behavior incentives.

"They're human beings," he said. "They need some variety."

Convicts who avoid trouble for six months can participate in social groups and clubs, and can buy in-cell televisions, CD players and music from a canteen catalog.

At 18 months, they can go to hobby shops, get extra visiting hours and attend cell-block ice-cream socials.

The incentives seem to be having a positive effect on prison discipline, even if they don't quite mesh with the public's idea of punishment. In the past three years, misconduct reports, assaults on staff and inmate fights have declined slightly, even as the state's prison population jumped from nearly 12,000 to more than 13,000.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.